surveillance – Page 11 – SSL and internet security news

Customer Tracking at Ralphs Grocery Store

January 29, 2020 infossl

consumerization, datacollection, dataprotection, privacy, Security technology, surveillance, tracking

To comply with California’s new data privacy law, companies that collect information on consumers and users are forced to be more transparent about it. Sometimes the results are creepy. Here’s an article about Ralphs, a California supermarket chain owned by Kroger: …the form proceeds to state that, as part of signing up for a rewards … Read More “Customer Tracking at Ralphs Grocery Store” »

Google Receives Geofence Warrants

January 28, 2020 infossl

geolocation, google, lawenforcement, nsa, privacy, Security technology, surveillance, tracking

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the corporate surveillance operations from the government ones: Google reportedly has a database called Sensorvault in which it stores location data for millions of devices going back almost a decade. The article is about geofence warrants, where the police go to companies like Google and ask for information about every … Read More “Google Receives Geofence Warrants” »

Modern Mass Surveillance: Identify, Correlate, Discriminate

January 27, 2020 infossl

cameras, essays, facerecognition, identification, lawenforcement, laws, privacy, Security technology, smartphones, surveillance

Communities across the United States are starting to ban facial recognition technologies. In May of last year, San Francisco banned facial recognition; the neighboring city of Oakland soon followed, as did Somerville and Brookline in Massachusetts (a statewide ban may follow). In December, San Diego suspended a facial recognition program in advance of a new … Read More “Modern Mass Surveillance: Identify, Correlate, Discriminate” »

Clearview AI and Facial Recognition

January 20, 2020 infossl

artificialintelligence, facerecognition, lawenforcement, police, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

The New York Times has a long story about Clearview AI, a small company that scrapes identified photos of people from pretty much everywhere, and then uses unstated magical AI technology to identify people in other photos. His tiny company, Clearview AI, devised a groundbreaking facial recognition app. You take a picture of a person, … Read More “Clearview AI and Facial Recognition” »

Police Surveillance Tools from Special Services Group

January 10, 2020 infossl

cameras, eavesdropping, espionage, foia, lawenforcement, police, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

Special Services Group, a company that sells surveillance tools to the FBI, DEA, ICE, and other US government agencies, has had its secret sales brochure published. Motherboard received the brochure as part of a FOIA request to the Irvine Police Department in California. “The Tombstone Cam is our newest video concealment offering the ability to … Read More “Police Surveillance Tools from Special Services Group” »

Hacking School Surveillance Systems

December 30, 2019 infossl

generations, hacking, privacy, schools, Security technology, surveillance

Lance Vick suggesting that students hack their schools’ surveillance systems. “This is an ethical minefield that I feel students would be well within their rights to challenge, and if needed, undermine,” he said. Of course, there are a lot more laws in place against this sort of thing than there were in — say — … Read More “Hacking School Surveillance Systems” »

ToTok Is an Emirati Spying Tool

December 24, 2019 infossl

apple, eavesdropping, google, malware, phones, privacy, Security technology, smartphones, spyware, surveillance, unitedarabemirates

The smartphone messaging app ToTok is actually an Emirati spying tool: But the service, ToTok, is actually a spying tool, according to American officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and a New York Times investigation into the app and its developers. It is used by the government of the United Arab Emirates to try … Read More “ToTok Is an Emirati Spying Tool” »

EFF on the Mechanics of Corporate Surveillance

December 13, 2019 infossl

businessofsecurity, eff, privacy, Security technology, surveillance, tracking

EFF has published a comprehensible and very readable “deep dive” into the technologies of corporate surveillance, both on the Internet and off. Well worth reading and sharing. Boing Boing post. Powered by WPeMatico

Obfuscation as a Privacy Tool

November 5, 2019 infossl

facerecognition, obscurity, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

This essay discusses the futility of opting out of surveillance, and suggests data obfuscation as an alternative. We can apply obfuscation in our own lives by using practices and technologies that make use of it, including: The secure browser Tor, which (among other anti-surveillance technologies) muddles our Internet activity with that of other Tor users, … Read More “Obfuscation as a Privacy Tool” »

Public Voice Launches Petition for an International Moratorium on Using Facial Recognition for Mass Surveillance

October 22, 2019 infossl

biometrics, facerecognition, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

Coming out of the Privacy Commissioners’ Conference in Albania, Public Voice is launching a petition for an international moratorium on using facial recognition software for mass surveillance. You can sign on as an individual or an organization. I did. You should as well. No, I don’t think that countries will magically adopt this moratorium. But … Read More “Public Voice Launches Petition for an International Moratorium on Using Facial Recognition for Mass Surveillance” »